


Sleepless

by glackedandmullered



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Insomnia, vague panic attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-13
Updated: 2013-12-13
Packaged: 2018-01-04 12:51:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1081233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glackedandmullered/pseuds/glackedandmullered
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Prompts on Tumblr. Featuring Insomniac Ryan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleepless

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Ryan's insomnia being bad and him not sleeping for like 3 days and the guys worrying and trying to help.  
> Prompt: Ryan is fucking terrified of the tree outside their bedroom. (maybe it whistles and bangs against their window or looks fucking terrifying or he saw that really shitty but scary horror movie The Hollow)

Saturday night he sits alone on the couch, sipping at a cool glass of water and staring at the tv screen, brightness turned so far down it’s basically just fog, willing his brain to shut the fuck off and let him sleep.

When the pictures stop being pictures, when they appear to slow down to Gavin level slo-mo he feels his heavy eyelids close for a moment and, when they reopen time has skipped forward an hour but it’s still only 3 and Ryan could quite happily ram his head into the house wall and knock himself out. He doesn’t though and, almost 5 hours later the first of the sleepers, Ray, wakes up and patters down the stairs, catching sight of Ryan curled up on the couch looking pitiful and exhausted and Ray sighs deeply, turns on the coffee machine and hands Ryan the cup minutes later with a sad smile on his face and a whispered “love you.”

Sunday night he doesn’t even bother falling asleep in the bed to begin with. He leaves the bed almost immediately after hearing all 5 sets of breathing even out and go quiet. He walks dizzily down the stairs, sits in the same place on the couch and leans over with his head in his hands. He blacks out for an hour but it felt like mere seconds and he wakes up headfirst on the carpet, his knees ache from what he assumes was the nosedive he took off the couch and his right arm is numb from being trapped under him. He staggers to his feet, limbs sore and head feeling like it was stuffed full of cotton wool and pours himself more water knowing it won’t help.

He curls up on the couch again and blinks through the darkness until each blink became slower and longer and, 6 hours after getting out of the bed, he drifts into a restless sleep that lasts only minutes before they house is alive with yelling and violent wake up calls and Ryan wishes he could have a normal nights sleep for once in his life. Jack appears at the door as Ryan is staggering out into the hall and he simply pulls the other man into a tight embrace, kisses the top of his head and apologises for being asleep when Ryan needed him.

He assures Jack and everyone else who asks that morning that it’s just stress and he’s be back to semi normal in no time. It would be a lie to say anyone believed him.

Monday night he awakes facing the window. There’s a storm brewing outside and the wind is already picking up. Normally he could roll over and forget it all, tucked up against any one of his boyfriends and dream away the night but tonight, with the abhorrent lack of sleep for 3 nights running his brain is in psychological overdrive and a panic kicks in. A panic not helped by the large oak outside their window being thrown this way and that by the increasing wind.

A flash of lightening floods the room with white and also streaks of black and Ryan’s heart pounds. He swings himself upright, covers shoved aside and hands gripping the mattress, his knuckles nearly white as the skin is pulled taught.

Suddenly everything seems too loud and too quiet all at once, the fall wind whipping around outside whistles deep into his brain and he pushes his hands against his head, squeezing harder and harder but nothing helps, there’s banging from wood hitting glass, the branches cast demonic shadows across the bed and the floor and his body. He closes his eyes to escape but they follow him, lights flashing against his eyelids. The pressure on his head that he himself was causing started to hurt, a crushing pain and for a moment in his panic he feels as if he might just crush his skull. He maybe wouldn’t mind because that would solve so much.

But then there are gentle hands on his, tugging them firmly away from his head and another pair of hands strokes the reddened skin his squeezing had left. The evil sounds and violent darkness recede behind the face that appears in his vision. It was Geoff. His Geoff, kneeling on the floor before him, hands reaching out to cup Ryan’s face gently and when their eyes meet he sees the worry deep within his boyfriends. And Geoff sees the panic in Ryans.

“You’re okay. Just breathe Ryan. Love just breathe.” Geoff is saying it over and over and Ryan hadn’t realised until that point but his breaths were fast, ragged and harsh. He hadn’t been able to place the reason why his chest was burning but now he could and he kept up the eye contact until he felt his heart calming and his breaths became more in time with whoever was resting against his back.

He slumped forward with fatigue only to be caught by 5 pairs of arms and tilted sideways – though with the dizziness he was now feeling it felt like he was being thrown in all directions – until his was laying on the bed again, Geoff still repeating his mantra making Ryan feel surprisingly safe and calm. Gavin and Ray were down by his feet, hands rubbing Ryan’s thighs in a calming way and his left hand was in Michaels so he figured the person behind him who was breathing so steadily was Jack.

They cuddle up to him as his eyelids get heavier and the winds dies down outside and their bedroom that once felt inexplicably small stretches out again to a bearable space.

Geoff, on the end of the mattress, body parallel with Ryans, refuses to close his eyes until Ryans do and stay that way and the creases of a frown in his forehead smooth out. Only then he allows himself to take in the familiar warmth and drifts into a deep sleep, _I’ll protect you_ playing on his lips as he does.


End file.
